Roommates
by FantasticFicLad
Summary: Prebreakfast deathmatches, foot injuries, accidental head trauma, trust issues, and kung fu films. Just a day in the life of two young superroommates. Connor Hawke, Cassandra Cain, friendship, light romance


Connor knew Cass was lurking around here somewhere. She was always lurking, and while she was adorable when she lurked, it was still a bit unnerving. Especially before he had his coffee. It had been two weeks since he had offered to let Cassandra Cain move into his loft after she detoxed from the effects of Deathstroke's serum. She needed a place to go where she'd feel safe, and lord knew the Bat-family wasn't exactly welcoming. They never had exactly trusted her, and after her mind was warped by Deathstroke, they were even colder than usual. "Makes my dad seem like father of the year", Connor thought wryly as he reached for the coffeemaker. The long-lost son of Green Arrow and the abandoned daughter of the Bat-clan made for odd roommates, but it was working, oddly enough. Cass may have recovered physically from the effects of the serum, but mentally she was still getting over it. From what Tim had told him, she was never big with trust, but ever since Deathstroke's assault on her mind, it was worse than ever. She flinched when anyone touched her, even though she would open up to Connor rarely. It was strange to see her at her most vulnerable. In costume, she was like a fearsome banshee of kicks and punches. It was easy to forget that under it all, she was just a scared 18-year-old girl who had been rejected by everyone she ever cared about. He'd never act on it, but he had to admit he was falling for her a little bit. The Monk and the Ninja, he thought. What a pairing. Yeah, he liked having Cass around. It sure beat living alone. Even if it was a bit unnerving how much she liked to -

"Fight."

Connor was snapped out of his thoughts by a gentle if still sharp punch to his shoulder. He turned around to find Cass standing there, grinning. "Fight." she repeated again, pointing to the elaborate obstacle course Connor had set up in their training room. They would usually have at least one training match each day, depending on how much energy Cass had to burn off. Of course, there was never actually a winner, since neither one of them would give up. It would generally just go until they were exhausted and collapsed. From the look in Cass' eyes, this one was going to last a long time. Connor really wished he had gotten to have his coffee, but he was always game.

Connor opened by sweeping at Cass' legs. She easily leapt over him, just like he knew she would. They had been studying each other's martial arts style since their very first bout, and they were going longer and longer without landing a blow on each other. Cass was faster than him and knew all the most dangerous places to hit, but Connor's style was more precise. But for both of them, a straight martial-arts fight would get boring after a while. You could usually tell when that happened. Like now, when Cass suddenly launched herself into the air, grabbed onto a rope in the middle of the obstacle course, and swung herself up to one of the balancing platforms in the course. Smirking, she motioned to Conner.

"Chase me. Scared?"

Conner, grinning, leapt up to one of the platforms. Cass quickly leapt over to the rings. With very little effort, she swung herself up to the railing of the second floor. Perching cat-like, Cass lithely ran across the railing. She was so focused on Connor's efforts to catch up to her, she wasn't focused on the railing, and she never saw the stray magazine resting on the railing. Her foot slipped on it, and she lost her footing, falling off the railing.

Connor watched in horror as Cass fell to the first floor. He had watched her fall before, and she always landed fine, but her balance was off this time. She managed to right herself, but landed hard on her right foot, twisting it under her. The sudden yelp of "OW!" confirmed Connor's fears.

As Connor leapt down to check on her, Cass cursed her stupidity. A magazine. A freaking magazine. How had she hurt herself by slipping on a copy of People? This was the last thing she needed.

Connor kneeled down next to Cass, who was curled up on the floor, her foot folded under her. Despite her mild protestations, he gently eased her leg into a more comfortable position to examine her foot. It was already looking sort of puffy under her sock.

''I'm fine. Used to pain. No big deal."

"Cass, you're not fine. That was a really bad fall. You might have broken your foot."

Cass gave Connor a slightly amused look. "I once punched out Shiva with a broken collarbone. I'll be fine."

Connor smiled. "Well, no one's expecting you to punch out evil family members while injured. I just want to make sure you're okay."

Cass muttered some mild protestations, but slung her arm around Connor's shoulder and leaned on him as she hopped her way over to the couch. Connor gently took Cassandra's foot, which had swollen to twice its normal size, and placed it on a soft cushion on the arm of the sofa. Cass hissed with pain as he carefully eased off her sock, revealing a nasty purple bruise covering her ankle. As he gently looked her foot over, Cass had the awful feeling that she was blushing. She wasn't used to feeling helpless or vulnerable, and she didn't like it at all. Especially around Connor. It was hard to believe he was only two years older than her, as smart and confident as he was. He had everything together, and she was a wreck in more ways than one. Her normal reaction when she was uncomfortable was to hit something, but that didn't seem appropriate right about now.

"I'll just walk it off. I'll be fine."

"I'm not a doctor, Cass, but I'd bet money you fractured something. We'd better go to the hospital to get it x-rayed."

Cass shook her head furiously "No doctors. I'm fine."

"Fine. Really?"

Connor lightly touched the side of Cass' foot. He heard a hiss of pain, and then a sudden impact against his head, followed by everything going to black.

He woke up, flat on the floor, with a very guilty looking Cass sitting on the couch. He rubbed his head.

"Sorry."

"Geez, my head. Did you just punch me?"

"Accident."

"You punched me in the head by accident?"

"Reflex. When someone hurts me, I hurt them. I know you didn't mean to. Me neither."

"Hey, it's okay. I - "

As Conner reached over to stroke Cass' hair, she flinched and turned away from him, muttering "I'm sorry". Connor was suddenly gripped by intense sadness for what must have happened to this girl to make her so scared.

"Hey, it's okay! I'm not upset. Dizzy, yeah, but not upset. I know you couldn't help it."

"You're not mad? When my father or Deathstroke were mad, they would hurt me. Batman...would just ignore me."

"Cass, you don't have to be scared. You're safe here. No one's going to hurt or abandon you ever again. Can you trust me?"

"I'll try."

Connor rubbed his head. "Man, it feels like there's an orchestra inside my skull. I'd better get it checked out at the hospital."

Cass blanched at the word. She immediately jumped off the couch. "Really don't need it. Trust me. See?" She made an attempt at walking forward, but collapsed in Connor's arms as soon as her injured foot touched the ground. She silently cursed.

"Cass, what's going on? You obviously can't walk on that foot."

Cass bit back tears as she thought back to the hundreds of times she had fought injured over her life. Cain had never let her rest an injury, instead often stepping up her challenges to force her to overcome pain. And for Batman, working through injury was a fact of life. He did it, and so did anyone else "lucky" enough to work for him. Why should this injury be any different?

"I'll survive. I've had broken bones before. They heal."

"Not perfectly. You've never even been to a hospital for treatment before, have you?"

Cass, looking at the floor, shook her head.

"I don't want to be weak. I...I can never appear weak."

"Weak? Hell, Cass, you're probably the strongest person I know. After what you've been through, you're still a good person who wants to help others. Nothing's going to change that. Now, come on. Do you trust me?"

Cass hesitantly smiled at Connor. She wasn't sure she would ever trust again, after what Deathstroke did to her, but she did trust Connor. And she was done being scared. Letting him gently pick her up to carry her to the car, she realized that despite the constant throbbing in her foot, she was calmer than she'd been in a long time.

A few hours later, Cass and Connor returned home. It didn't take long for the x-rays to show two small broken bones in Cassandra's foot, and she was now sporting a dark blue cast from her knee to her toes, as well as a pair of crutches which she was balancing on precariously as Connor hovered over her. Collapsing on the couch, she raised her foot onto a pile of cushions which Connor had arranged on the table in front of her.

"Six weeks.", she pouted, thinking about how long that would be without martial arts.

"It'll fly by. Trust me. Let me introduce you to a marvelous invention called Cable TV."

Connor flipped the channel to TBS, for the Kung-Fu matinee. Cass was transfixed by the sight of the man on screen kicking seven ninjas in the face.

"I could do that. Why is he kicking the ninjas in the face?"

"For revenge. And our entertainment. Revenge never gave us anything good except really bad Kung Fu."

"So...what do I do now? While I'm injured? All my skills involve two feet."

Connor smiled and tousled Cass' hair. This time, she didn't flinch.

"You relax, concentrate on getting better, and let me take care of you. Trust me, I don't mind at all. Oh, and I almost forgot. You're a cute girl with a cast. You're going to be getting lots of signatures. I want to be the first."

Connor took a sharpie marker off the table and quickly doodled "Get well soon. Your friend always, Connor." on Cass' foot. She looked at it quizzically.

"This seems like an odd ritual."

"Most things people do are. Just go with it."

Cass slowly leaned in and kissed Connor on the cheek, then snuggled up to him as they continued to watch the Kung Fu Master's quest for revenge.

Silly boy, she thought to herself. Six weeks was more than enough time to work a cast and crutches into her martial-arts style. She'd go easy on him, but next round was all hers.


End file.
